All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear Friends,

As Fr. Michael wrote last week, Sunday marked 20 years of my ministry at All Saints. I am grateful to him for his kind remarks, to Fr. Julian for his in his sermon at High Mass, and to so many others for greetings and prayers for me and my family.

Unlike last week’s celebration, this Sunday there is a good deal of complaining about Moses in the reading from Exodus (16: 2-4, 9-15). To the Israelites, freedom on the wilderness road no longer seemed so attractive to them when there is nothing to eat. Slavery seemed a safer option. 

Both Old Testament reading and Gospel (John 6: 24-35) centre on bread.  In Exodus God responds to the people’s complaint by supplying them with manna – bread from heaven.  In the discourse which follows the feeding of the five thousand in John’s Gospel, Jesus takes that language to speak of himself and the food he will give to people:  “the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Today is the feast of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. In Spanish, the Jesuits are often called “La Compania – The Company of Jesus” – the companions of Jesus, those who keep company with him, literally those who eat bread with, those who accompany him on the way.

The Epistle (Ephesians 4: 1-16) may be rather overshadowed by the other readings with their common theme and obvious link with the Eucharist, but it is a wonderful passage with important things to say to those who are the company of Jesus.

It speaks of our calling to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” and of the virtues needed for that: humility and gentleness, patience and bearing with one another in love.

If we think that hopeless in the face of our divisions, we are reminded that this unity is not a human construction, but comes from the “one God and Father of all.”  

That word “one” echoes like a refrain in the passage: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. The world of Ephesians was one of divisions just as ours is. Our culture tends to think of “one” as individual rather than communal, of separate rather than united; of human fulfillment and maturity in individualistic terms.   

What is given by God in our baptism is not just a matter of the salvation of one person but of all. It is our calling to share in Christ’s work of bringing all things into unity.  Baptism is not the end but the beginning of a dynamic process of growth. 

Just as we need material food if our bodies are to grow, so we need food for our mind and soul if we are to become fully human.  For this Christ has given grace, gifts, “for the building up of the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.” If we are to live a life worthy of our calling, we must make use of the gifts God gives us for that.

When we are tempted to wish we had never embarked on our pilgrimage, and even to turn back from following Jesus to some easier life without the challenges of bearing with people who are not like us, we need to remember that he is the living bread who comes to feed us at the table of word and sacrament and to make us one in his body.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Alan Moses 
Vicar of All Saints Margaret Street
Area Dean of Westminster & St Marylebone

Please pray for those who have asked for our prayers: Asia Bibi. Ella Carroll, James Cary-Elwes, Ian Coull, Paul Curno, Elizabeth Day, Michael Duggan, Helen Everett, Jonty Gordon, Fr Tony Halton, Yvonne Harland, Lewis Harvey, Hilary Hill, Alice Jullien, Andrew Laird, Dorothy Laird, Tom Leader, Anthea Lepper, William Lightening, Christine Loffty, Estelle Lovell, Simon MacGregor, Sister Martha (SMNC Tanzania), Hilary Morgan, David Pearce, Prebendary Tunde Roberts, Nick Russell, Jock Scott, Buzz Stokes, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Christine van Dyck and Joy Wright.

For the recently departed: Bruce Barnett- Cowan (Priest), Audrey Lewis (former Lord Mayor of Westminster and good friend to All Saints) and Owen Chadwick (Priest). 

Remember past priests, benefactors, friends, and all whose year’s mind occurs this week including: Patrick Whatmore, Sara Stevens, Eva Spencer, Harriet Brownlow Byron (Mother Foundress of the All Saints Sisters of the Poor), Donald Scott, Mona Morgan, Julian Davies, Jessie Graves, David Archer and Harriet Gray.

WORSHIP THIS SUNDAY 2 AUGUST – NINTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 
During the month of August we are continuing to highlight the musicians of All Saints and music written for this church, as we did last week.This morning’s motet was commissioned from the late Norman Caplin (Honorary Assistant Organist 1968–2011) by former All Saints’ Choir member Adey Grummet for her all-female group The Curate’s Egg. One of the hymn tunes is by the first organist of All Saints, Richard Redhead (1839 – 1860).

HIGH MASS, 11am
Preacher: Father Michael Bowie
Mass in G – Rheinberger
The Baptised – Caplin 

Much of the music written for the Choir has been recorded. CDs will be on sale at the back of Church after the service at a special price of £6 or two for £10.

There are no Sunday lunches during the month of August. Sunday lunch service will resume in September.

CHORAL EVENSONG & BENEDICTION, 6pm
This evening we hear canticles originally written for the upper voices at St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, by our current Director of Music, Timothy Byram-Wigfield, and a lovely setting of Ave Maria by Dr. Walter Vale (Director of Music 1907–39).

Preacher: The Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses
The Edinburgh Service – Timothy Byram-Wigfield
Ave Maria – Vale

WORSHIP NEXT SUNDAY 9 AUGUST – TENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
HIGH MASS, 11am
Preacher: The Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses
Missa Princeps Pacis – Lloyd Webber
I will go unto the altar of God – Harry Bramma

There are no Sunday lunches during the month of August. Sunday lunch service will resume in September.

CHORAL EVENSONG & BENEDICTION, 6pm
Preacher: Fr Michael Bowie 
Service ‘plerumque in modo dorico’ – Arnold 
Welcome, sweet and sacred feast – Finzi 

PARISH NOTICES

Wednesday 26 August – Sunday 6 September 2015
The Parish Office will be closed during this holiday period. Voicemails and emails will be checked from time to time and dealt with.

EVENTS AT ALL SAINTS in AUGUST and SEPTEMBER

Saturday 8 August, 11.30 am
Devotions to Our Lady of Walsingham followed by
CELL MASS OF OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM, 12 noon. All welcome.

Saturday 15 August, 12 noon
HIGH MASS OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (with a circular outdoor procession of the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham from Church along Oxford Street and back to Church for the first time at All Saints).

Preacher: Father Simon Jones, Chaplain Merton College, Oxford
Missa Solemnis in C, K337 – Mozart 
Salve Regina – Poulenc 

Please consider offering your services as a steward as well as attending. 

If you can assist as a procession steward (essential for safety reasons) or by playing a role in the procession itself, contact Dee Prior in the Parish Office on 020 7636 1788 or see Dee or Cedric Stephens, Head Server, after High Mass. The Corpus Christi procession this year (see photos on the All Saints website) was particularly successful with choir and small marching band (with drummer) accompaniment. It attracted a goodly number of friends of All Saints from a broad range of other parishes. We should like to establish in the annual calendar a similar profile for the Feast of the Assumption so do encourage friends to attend. The opportunity to be visible in Oxford Street at lunchtime during the summer is especially welcome.

Sunday 13 September, 7.15pm (after Benediction)
ORGAN RECITAL – Charles Andrews, Associate Director of Music. 

Programme: Concerto in C after J. E. Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar BWV595 – J. S. Bach
An Wasserflüssen Babylon – J. Pachelbel
Miserere (four parts) – W. Byrd
Minuet – W. Lloyd Webber
From Zwölf Orgelvorträge op. 174 – J. Rheinberger
Scherzoso – Abendruhe – Romanze – Aufschwung – Improvisation – Finale

Retiring collection to support the Choir and Music at All Saints (suggested donation £4)
The All Saints Licensed Club/Bar below the Church will be open after this recital.

EVENTS ELSEWHERE in AUGUST

Saturday 1 August 2015 – FESTIVAL OF THE EASTERN CATHOLIC CHURCHES at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family, Duke Street, W1. 10.30am Syro-Malabar Qurbana – Sung Liturgy in English. 4.30pm Ukrainian Catholic Great Vespers in English. The day includes: Films: Kerala, Cradle of Christianity in SE Asia,Aramaic, Jesus, India & Music: the Syro-Malabar Church; a Talk: The Music of the Syro-Malabar Church by Revd Dr Joseph Palackal; The Suffering Eastern Churches: Presentation from John Newton, Aid to the Church in Need. All welcome (requested Fee – £10, including donation for Aid to the Church in Need). Please bring a packed lunch – tea and coffee provided. Booking essential at – johnchrysostom@btinternet.com. 

ALL SAINTS RESTORATION PROJECT UPDATE

The last of the long-awaited glass lampshades has now been fitted, so that all five pendant lights are fully illuminated. Still to come is the fitting of the specially made light fittings for the choir stalls (to be attached to the wrought iron grilles). When all are in place we will be able to fine-tune the settings of the overall lighting scheme, although some of this work will have to wait until the darker days of autumn.

Funds for the project continue to be raised and the total received at the time of writing is now a splendid £410,000.

As this complex project reaches its conclusion, and the final invoices are received, we have recently had a number of generous gifts that have eliminated the loans of £35,000 that we initially relied upon for the project to get underway. Any more gifts will allow us a small reserve against the final cost of the works. If there are any surplus funds when all bills are paid, these will go towards future restoration projects at All Saints.

We are indebted to all those donors who gave so generously to replace the out-dated electrics and to relight the church so that all the achievements of earlier phases of restoration work are now revealed. Thank you! 

HOW YOU CAN HELP………. please make cheques payable to: All Saints Church Restoration Appeal and send them to: The Parish Administrator, 7 Margaret Street, London W1W 8JG. 

Please indicate where Gift Aid may be applied or send in a completed Gift Aid envelope from in church, as it increases the value of your contribution by 25% at no cost to yourself. Thank you!

ONGOING SUPPORT for HOMELESS PEOPLE through:
MARYLEBONE PROJECT run by the CHURCH ARMY – A Day Centre, Residential and Transitional accommodation provider, re-settlement project and Educational and Training Unit for women. The Emergency Bed Unit – for which we have for some years helped to provide the funds for one of the 4 beds – offers a safe haven and refuge for women escaping domestic violence, financial crisis, sexual exploitation and mental health issues.

Seasonal Appeals – The grand total collected at All Saints for mission activities in 2014 was £6,463 through the All Saints Festival and Lent Appeals. £3,463 went to the Marylebone Project and a further £3,000 to Us (formerly USPG).

Year Round Support – we also support the Marylebone Resettlement Project with non-perishable food and toiletries or household necessities like cutlery or bed linen/blankets.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed so generously recently – a good number of parcels and bags of food and household essentials have been left in Church or handed in to the Parish Office recently and we shall need to arrange a drop off to the Project to deliver them. Thank you!
Please continue to donate these so we can help more people in need.

Day-to-day Support – we respond to the needs of homeless people who visit the church, providing luncheon vouchers for the West London Day Centre for rough sleepers who apply to the office and allowing a few individuals, who need a place to shelter or sleep during the day, to rest in the back of the church. We have created an information resource for Church Watchers, giving useful advice to homeless and vulnerable people seeking particular support or services. In the face of a rising tide of homelessness in London, please help us fund and support people in need through our Mission project.

Want to help someone sleeping rough but don’t know how?
Call Streetlink on 0300 500 0914 and they will get a visit from the local Street Team who can put them in contact with the services they may need.

FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS OR ASSISTANCE FROM ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET:-
* If you would like to encourage others to take an interest in All Saints/keep up with what is happening here, please forward this email on to them, or to people you would like to invite to services or tell them about our website www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk, which has a full colour 360 virtual tour for viewing the wonderfully restored interior of the Church – see www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk/history/virtualtour – before a visit or if unable to travel.

* If you know of others who would like to receive this correspondence please encourage them to sign up for the email on the All Saints website – see the tab News & Events> Weekly Newsletter.

* If you would like prayers offered at All Saints, please email the Parish Administrator Mrs Dee Prior at: astsmgtst@aol.com. Or make use of the prayer request facility on the website at: www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk/prayer.

If you would like any pastoral assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses: alanmoses111@gmail.com. Or Assistant Priest Fr Michael Bowie: mnrbowie@hotmail.com.

DAILY SERVICES AT ALL SAINTS
On major weekday feasts, High Mass is sung at 6.30pm

SUNDAYS in Church
Low Mass 6.30pm (Saturday), 8am and 5.15pm. Morning Prayer 10.20am
HIGH MASS AND SERMON, 11am and   CHORAL EVENSONG, SERMON and BENEDICTION, 6pm.

MONDAY – FRIDAY
Morning Prayer 7.30am
Low Mass – 8am, 1.10pm and 6.30pm
Evening Prayer 6pm
(Except Bank Holidays – 12 noon Mass only)

SATURDAY
Morning Prayer 7.30am
Low Mass – 12 noon and 6.30pm (First Mass of Sunday)
Evening Prayer 6pm

Confessions
A priest is available for confessions/counsel Monday – Friday from 12.30-1pm and at 5.30pm Monday – Saturday, or by appointment. (Special arrangements apply in Lent and for Holy Week.)

www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk and e-mail: astsmgtst@aol.com